List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 209

This is a list of cases reported in volume 209 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1908.

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 209 U.S.

The Supreme Court is established by Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States, which says: "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court...". The size of the Court is not specified; the Constitution leaves it to Congress to set the number of justices. Under the Judiciary Act of 1789 Congress originally fixed the number of justices at six. Since 1789 Congress has varied the size of the Court from six to seven, nine, ten, and back to nine justices.
When the cases in volume 209 were decided the Court comprised the following nine members:

Portrait	Justice	Office	Home State	Succeeded	Date confirmed by the Senate	Tenure on Supreme Court
	Melville Fuller	Chief Justice	Illinois	Morrison Waite		– July 4, 1910
	John Marshall Harlan	Associate Justice	Kentucky	David Davis		– October 14, 1911
	David Josiah Brewer	Associate Justice	Kansas	Stanley Matthews		– March 28, 1910
	Edward Douglass White	Associate Justice	Louisiana	Samuel Blatchford		– December 18, 1910
	Rufus W. Peckham	Associate Justice	New York	Howell Edmunds Jackson		– October 24, 1909
	Joseph McKenna	Associate Justice	California	Stephen Johnson Field		– January 5, 1925
	Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.	Associate Justice	Massachusetts	Horace Gray		– January 12, 1932
	William R. Day	Associate Justice	Ohio	George Shiras Jr.		– November 13, 1922
	William Henry Moody	Associate Justice	Massachusetts	Henry Billings Brown		– November 20, 1910

Notable Case in 209 U.S.

''Ex parte Young''

In Ex parte Young,, the Supreme Court held that suits in federal courts for injunctions against individual officials acting on behalf of states of the union may proceed despite the State's sovereign immunity, when the State acted contrary to any federal law or contrary to the Constitution. This ruling evaded the problem of the Eleventh Amendment, which prohibits states from being sued in federal court by citizens of other states.

Citation style

Under the Judiciary Act of 1789 the federal court structure at the time comprised District Courts, which had general trial jurisdiction; Circuit Courts, which had mixed trial and appellate jurisdiction; and the United States Supreme Court, which had appellate jurisdiction over the federal District and Circuit courts—and for certain issues over state courts. The Supreme Court also had limited original jurisdiction. There were one or more federal District Courts and/or Circuit Courts in each state, territory, or other geographical region.
The Judiciary Act of 1891 created the United States Courts of Appeals and reassigned the jurisdiction of most routine appeals from the district and circuit courts to these appellate courts. The Act created nine new courts that were originally known as the "United States Circuit Courts of Appeals." The new courts had jurisdiction over most appeals of lower court decisions. The Supreme Court could review either legal issues that a court of appeals certified or decisions of court of appeals by writ of certiorari.
Bluebook citation style is used for case names, citations, and jurisdictions.

"# Cir." = United States Court of Appeals
* e.g., "3d Cir." = United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
"C.C.D." = United States Circuit Court for the District of...
* e.g.,"C.C.D.N.J." = United States Circuit Court for the District of New Jersey
"D." = United States District Court for the District of...
* e.g.,"D. Mass." = United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
"E." = Eastern; "M." = Middle; "N." = Northern; "S." = Southern; "W." = Western
* e.g.,"C.C.S.D.N.Y." = United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York
* e.g.,"M.D. Ala." = United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama
"Ct. Cl." = United States Court of Claims
The abbreviation of a state's name alone indicates the highest appellate court in that state's judiciary at the time.
* e.g.,"Pa." = Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
* e.g.,"Me." = Supreme Judicial Court of Maine

List of cases in volume 209 U.S.

Case Name	Page & year	Opinion of the Court	Concurring opinion	Dissenting opinion	Lower Court	Disposition
White-Smith Music Publishing Company v. Apollo Company		Day	Holmes	none	2d Cir.	affirmed
Dun v. Lumbermen's Credit Association		Moody	none	none	7th Cir.	affirmed
Venner v. Great Northern Railroad Company		Moody	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Battle v. United States		Holmes	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ga.	affirmed
United States v. Thayer		Holmes	none	none	N.D. Tex.	reversed
O'Reilly de Camara v. Brooke		Holmes	none	none	S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Smith v. Rainey		Holmes	none	none	Sup. Ct. Terr. Ariz.	reversed
Armour Packing Company v. United States		Day	none	Brewer	8th Cir.	affirmed
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company v. United States		Day	none	none	8th Cir.	affirmed
Bosque v. United States		Fuller	none	none	Phil.	affirmed
Hallowell v. United States		Harlan	none	none	8th Cir.	dismissed
Interstate Commerce Commission v. Chicago Great Western Railway Company		Brewer	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ill.	affirmed
Ex parte Young		Peckham	none	Harlan	C.C.D. Minn.	habeas corpus denied
Hunter v. Wood		Peckham	none	Harlan	C.C.W.D.N.C.	affirmed
General Oil Company v. Crain		McKenna	Harlan	Moody	Tenn.	affirmed
Dotson v. Milliken		Holmes	none	none	D.C. Cir.	affirmed
Hutchins v. Munn		Moody	none	none	D.C. Cir.	affirmed
Asbell v. Kansas		Moody	none	none	Kan.	affirmed
Thomas v. Iowa		Moody	none	none	Iowa	dismissed
Lipphard v. Humphrey		Fuller	none	none	D.C. Cir.	affirmed
McCabe and Steen Construction Company v. Wilson		Brewer	none	none	Sup. Ct. Terr. Okla.	affirmed
Garzot v. De Rubio		White	none	none	D.P.R.	reversed
United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company v. United States ex rel. Struthers Wells Company		Peckham	none	none	2d Cir.	affirmed
National Life Insurance Company v. National Life Insurance Company		Peckham	none	none	7th Cir.	affirmed
Allemannia Fire Insurance Company v. Firemen's Insurance Company ex rel. Wolfe		Peckham	none	none	D.C. Cir.	affirmed
United States v. Cerecedo Hermanos y Compañia		McKenna	none	none	D.P.R.	reversed
Thompson v. Kentucky		McKenna	none	none	Ky.	affirmed
Hudson County Water Company v. McCarter		Holmes	none	none	N.J.	affirmed
Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company v. City of Vicksburg		Day	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	affirmed
Richardson v. Shaw		Day	Holmes	none	2d Cir.	affirmed
Thomas v. Taggart		Day	none	none	2d Cir.	affirmed
Beadles v. Smyser		Day	none	none	Sup. Ct. Terr. Okla.	reversed
Ware and Leland v. Mobile County		Day	none	none	Ala.	affirmed
Longyear v. Toolan		Moody	none	none	Mich.	affirmed
Stickney v. Kelsey		Moody	none	none	N.Y. County Sur. Ct.	dismissed
Shawnee Compress Company v. Anderson		McKenna	none	none	Sup. Ct. Terr. Okla.	affirmed
Ex parte Nebraska		Fuller	none	none	C.C.D. unspecified	mandamus denied
United States v. Chandler-Dunbar Water Power Company		Holmes	none	none	6th Cir.	affirmed
Liu Hop Fong v. United States		Day	none	none	D. Neb.	reversed
Bogard v. Sweet		Harlan	none	none	Sup. Ct. Terr. Okla.	affirmed
Lang v. New Jersey		McKenna	none	none	N.J.	affirmed
Central Railroad Company of New Jersey v. Jersey City		Holmes	none	none	N.J.	affirmed
Scully v. Bird		McKenna	none	none	C.C.E.D. Mich.	reversed
In re Moore		Brewer	none	Fuller	C.C.E.D. Mo.	mandamus denied
Virginia v. West Virginia		Fuller	none	none	original	referred to special master